A Romanian funeral song, starred again in early 900, says: "The wolf appears in front of you. Take it like your brother, because the wolf knows the order of the forests. He takes you by plane to heaven ...".
The vision of the wolf as psychopomp, ie guide to the afterlife, is as old as the origins of man, also testified by the discovery of urns in the shape cynocephali, attributed to the Indo-European cultures. A very different view of how our culture now considers the wolf as we have come to such a change and what led the man to consider the pet as a threat to be exterminated?
The most recent ethological studies we deliver the image of a gentle animal, monogamous, prompt with their offspring, with social behavior and non-aggressive towards humans.
A creature, all things considered, quite different from the image of legendary evil and bloodthirsty predator that the man has sewn over the centuries; Rather, it is easy to distinguish the similarities between wolves and humans so much that is lost in the mists of time the custom of kept as a companion, or guard flocks of wolves hunting companion in his most popular "transformation" into a dog.
Primitive man with the wolf migrated during the ice ages, from North America, Eurasia, Indo-tunes accompanying the races in Europe and their spread in the Indian sub-continent.
In the then social system type nomads (hunters - gatherers), the wolf was a competitor who, in the same ecological niche, pursuing the same prey, but was more able, because faster, with more acute senses, with an enviable view night and "armed" with fangs and claws by nature. Man, even rivaling him, revered as a fine example of a predator, who steal from the tactics and stratagems. The hunter, to excel in its intent, therefore, was to ingratiate himself with the spirit that, in shamanic cultures, occurred due to emulation, that is, becoming "close" the essence of the beast up to assume the behavior, appearance and even the powers .
This was, in all likelihood, the first example of "lycanthropy": that the human capacity to transform itself (with the existence of certain conditions) in their totemic animal, the wolf in our case. This transformation took place (and will continue to be, as we shall see, at least until the tenth century) through ecstatic ritual which involved the emulation movements of feral and the assumption of specific substances (sacred mushrooms, rather than alcohol or beverages made of herbs) ; wearing the skin of the animal he assumed the appearance and movements, through the ingestion of "sacred substance" if it acquired spirituality, strength and courage. Now the shaman was the god-wolf that led propitiatory dances rather than the hunt itself, as they seem to show some paintings.
At the dawn of the Bronze Age most of the races now adopted a sedentary type of social framework, based on agriculture, hunting and handicrafts, with female cults and "moon", focusing on the fertility rituals and marked by the moon cycles that marked a life based social typical seasonal rhythms of the corporate form permanent.
The meeting between these realities with many nomads, whose cult was based on masculine images and shamanic solar, gave rise to a fascinating fusion of cultures at the base are the many "myths of the beginning" who see the wolf as protagonist . Phoebus and Artemis (respectively related to the Sun and Moon) were born to Leto, transformed into a wolf. The same Sabines called themselves "sons of the wolf" and that is why, perhaps, that a she-wolf was entrusted with the protection and sustenance of the divine twins Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome.
Farther south the same Osiris, after the dismemberment of his body by the evil brother, reborn as a canid. Finally, even in the Mongolian culture is the Celestial Wolf progenitor of heroes, the last of whom was the famous Genghis Khan.
We note that the overlap between the ancient cults of the hunt and those investing in fertility, a bit 'in all cultures, the wolf as an animal propitiator of fertilization. I cite in this regard, the Lupercalia in ancient Rome where the followers of the God Lupercus (around mid-February) traveled half-naked through the streets of the urban women of childbearing age beating with leather straps, so recalling the beginnings of the foundation of the City transformed in an apparent ritual practiced fertility and rebirth.
The wolf, however, did not merely embody the myths of birth and fertility, already at the dawn of the Iron Age Norse warriors and Central European cultures considered the wolf (and his family totem, the bear and the dog) as models of courage and puissance: symbols of a warrior caste elite.
Summing up the various sources come down to us (and later most contaminated by the editors of the Catholic faith) we can draw a profile of what could plausibly be a ulfhednar (warrior-wolf) or a Berserkr (warrior-bear) and their evolution in Europe. Already Tacitus (in his book "Germany") tells us of fierce warriors (the Aryans) with shields blacks, naked and painted body who prefer fighting at night, thus making eco warrior from a tradition that is rooted in Norse mythology.
Odin himself is stronger than his band of holy warriors who joined in Valhalla and which are often associated with ulfhednar and Berserkr. German-Scandinavian warrior society in this elite military units fighting in highly prestigious, highly organized military caste hierarchical and linked to the divinity which they were consecrated, enjoying the aura of sacred power, respect and fear.
Inspired by the remote, and already mentioned, the shamanistic practices of their ancestors, they embody the essence of the wolf (or bear), the ferocity, cunning and fearsome appearance. These men were under priestly initiations conducted with the use of alcohol and psychotropic substances (mushrooms, herbs, mead or beer) and type ecstatic rituals, during which the warrior fell into a trance shamanic type.
We can not exclude that one of the tests was to support the hunting and killing of the animal, with the intake of meat and blood, literally entering into the body of the warrior bestows the coveted quality. These people dressed in wolf skins, wore leather thongs with metal rings loud and legs, biting their shields and "howled" at the very battles to terrify the enemy.
[Of the Helvarr Bibrax.]
